Breaking Down The Shortloin Roasts (Pics)

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tx smoker

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Apr 14, 2013
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I got a PM from our friend SmokinGame SmokinGame asking if I would post how I broke down the shortloin roasts I got from CPB recently. When I ordered them there were supposed to be two roasts shipped but due to a glitch by the 3rd party shipping company they sometimes use, I only got one of the roasts in the first shipment. The second one came the week after Thanksgiving and I got it broken down last weekend. The first order was just a tad under 22 pounds and I cut 11 steaks out of it. Most qualified as Porterhouse and a few were T-Bones. Here is the link to that thread:


Knowing I was going to be cooking a pseudo Christmas dinner for 4 people, the first "steak" I cut from the one last weekend was intended to be a smaller shortloin "roast" in the vicinity of 3 1/2 pounds. Measured and marked the roast and cut it at 3" thick. OOPS!! I missed by about 3 solar systems. Not even close to my intended weight. It came out at 5 pounds 7 ounces. Oh well....I figured I'd just vac seal it and put it in the freezer. Something would come up at some point I could use it for. I considered trying to cut it in half but decided that could be hazardous to my health. Thought I may lose a couple of digits trying that so left well enough alone. From there I measured out 1 1/2" increments for steaks and commenced to cutting. When I got to the last one it was considerably larger than the 1 1/2" thickness I was shooting for. Hmmm...weighed it and it was 3 pounds 10 ounces. Very close to the original size I wanted for the Christmas dinner so I stopped cutting at that point and left it as it was. Here are some pics of the breakdown process with very little commentary.

My only tools: a sharp Chef's knife and a Sawzall with the blade washed and sterilized.
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This one is considerably larger than the first one
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The behemoth
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The one top left was the last one that was close to my original target weight for the Christmas dinner
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The PR is for Porterhouse Roast as opposed to Prime Rib and the numbers are weight in pounds and ounces
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On this one the TR is for T-Bone Roast. It did not qualify as a Porterhouse
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It's a crude and rudimentary way to break down this type of roast but I do the best I can with the tools I have. After marking where I want to make the cuts, I cut as much as I can from all sides of the roast with the knife and use the Sawzall only for cutting through the bone. That blade would tear the meat to pieces if I tried cutting all the way through with the Sawzall. Turns out that since cutting these last weekend I've had two more Christmas dinners added to my agenda. Got some friends unexpectedly coming into town tomorrow from NM who are escaping quarantine and they are coming here for dinner along with another couple...about the only people we've spent much time with in the last year. The behemoth is defrosting as I attempt to type and will get mesquite fired on the Santa Maria for dinner tomorrow evening. Not a whole lot of info here but hopefully you'll get at least a small amount of insight on how I destroy these sub primal cuts of beef.

Happy and safe holidays everybody!!
Robert
 
Holy crap! 5lb 7oz!! I cant wait to see that bad boy come off the Santa Maria!
 
Very nice tutorial. Gonna be some good eats. Me and Emily gonna share one of them giant porterhouses Tuesday night for our anniversary
 
Thanks, Robert, for the pics. You are much more ambitious than me, attacking that monster with the sawsall.
 
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